The Private Provision of Public Services in Developing Countries, by Gabriel Roth (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987). A careful and readable study of the prospects for privatization in developing nations, including case studies of education, electricity, health, telecommunications, urban transport, and water and sewage.

Dissent on Development, by P. T. Bauer (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1971 and 1976). A clear and convincing critique of the statist model of economic development; demolishes one argument after another.

"The Importance of Political Participation for Sustained Capitalist Development," by Grace Goodell in European Journal of Sociology 26 (1985). Shows how economic growth rests on a foundation of legal and economic institutions that involve entrepreneurs, savers, investors, and consumers in economic decision-making in a market economy. Goodell provides the context for us to understand why "foreign aid" does not result in economic growth in third world countries.

The Poverty of Development Economics, by Deepak Lal (London: Institute of Economic Affairs, 1983). Analyzes the major currents of development economics, offering a liberal free-market alternative.

Development Economics on Trial, by Polly Hill (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986). An economic anthropologist shows how development "experts" misconstrue the meaning of indigeneous and spontaneously evolved market mechanisms, with disastrous consequences.

Development Without Aid: Growth, Poverty, and Government, by Melvyn B. Krauss (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1983). The biggest obstacle to development in the Third World is the state, both local states and the aid-granting welfare states of the industrialized nations.

"Development Economics After 40 Years," special issue of Cato Journal 7 (Spring/Summer 1987). Includes many articles on kleptocracy (the rule of thieves) in developing nations, and the role of the state in hindering, and the market in advancing, economic prosperity.

The Peasant Betrayed: Agriculture and Land Reform in the Third World, by John P. Powelson and Richard Stock (Boston: Oelgeschlager, Gunn & Hain, 1987). Reveals the damaging effects of land reform plans administered by the state. The net effect is usually to concentrate authority and power in the central state.

The Rational Peasant: The Political Economy of Rural Society in Vietnam, by Samuel Popkin (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979). Offers a "political economy" approach to understanding peasant societies that contrasts with the anti- market "moral economy" approach. Considers peasants as "rational problem solvers."

Prosperity vs. Planning, by David Osterfeld (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992). Osterfeld shows how state interventionism in poorer nations has perpetuated poverty and prevented the emergence of institutions necessary for prosperity.

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